TOPIC: Passed PMP Exam First Try - All 5 Proficient

I passed my PMP exam on Friday, January 20th on my first attempt with “proficient” ratings in all five areas! A HUGE part of my success as due to the PM PrepCast and PMP Exam Simulator. Thanks Cornelius and team!

I know that reading the lessons learned of others really helped me as my test date approached, so here is my experience. Some background on me, I have worked for the same civil engineering/consulting since I graduated college and have been a project manager for the past 12 years. About 9 months ago I was working on a proposal and realized that I was the only one at my staff level without letters behind my name! My colleagues are mostly professional engineers, and I don’t have the qualifications or desire the desire to be a PE, so I started researching my options. It quickly became apparent that the PMP certification was the gold standard so I gave myself a year to pass the exam. I have a family and my husband and I work full time so I figured a year would be more than enough time to study on top of everything else.

I joined PMI and downloaded the PMBOK guide in April of last year. I started reading it and quickly realized I need something else too. Not only to get the PDUs I needed to apply to take the exam, but to help me digest all the material. I did some research and came upon the PM PrepCast. I admit I was tempted to spend a small fortune and take one of the boot camps and just get the test over with, but I was pursuing the certification on my own and didn’t want to spend the time and money. I am REALY glad I went with the PM PrepCast. I honestly don’t think there is any way possible I would have passed the test after a one-week boot camp. From my perspective, the PMP test really tested my comprehension and application of my PM knowledge. Memorization would not have been enough for me.

I downloaded the prepcast and started listening to it every chance I got. In the car, on the treadmill, while washing dishes. My family got used to mom running around with one ear bud in! As I listened to the various lessons I would read the same sections in the PMBOK guide. The combinations of the prepcast and reading really helped concepts start to sink in the for me. I got through the prepcast and PMBOK guide by the end of August and then I purchased Rita’s Study guide and went through that. I read each chapter and took the quizzes, but I did not do the exercises in the book. Once I finished with the study guide in November I activated my PMP Exam Simulator subscription and started taking practice tests. It was not pretty at first! Some of my early scores were in the 58% range. I usually attacked questions in groups of 20-100 depending on how much time I had. Slowly my scores improved as I put all the concepts together. I think the exam simulator was invaluable in that sense. I knew, most of the material, but I needed the simulator to help me understand how all of what I had learned interrelated and flowed. I ended up answering all the questions in the exam simulator. In the end I only took two of the full length 200 question exams and scored 78% and 79% on those. Going back and reading the answers to the questions was extremely helpful too. Not only did I read the correct answer on questions I got wrong, but I read them on questions I got right too. That helped me understand the logic behind the answer and how to apply the concepts in various scenarios.

Earlier this month after I finished all the exam simulator questions, I decided I was ready and applied to take the exam. It took PMI 5 days to review my application and I was not audited. I scheduled my test for a week later.

During that week I just reviewed notes I had taken and read the lessons learned on the PM exam simulator forums. I also drove to the Prometrics center where my test was scheduled. That helped calm my nerves a little. The night before the exam I went to bed early which was a good thing because I woke up at 3 am and couldn’t go back to sleep! My test was scheduled for 8:30 am so I arrived at the center at 7:45 and went the restroom and got checked in. At my center you were not allowed to access your locker at all while you were testing so I was told to leave my water and snack on top of the lockers if I thought I would want it at any point during the exam. I went through the screening process (pull up sleeves and pant legs, checked pockets and metal detector) and the Prometrics employee got my computer set up told me I couldn’t write on my scratch paper until the first question came up on the screen. I went through the tutorial which was less than five minutes and when I ended that the exam began immediately!

I did not do a brain dump and for me, that was the right choice. The first ten questions were REALLY hard. I found myself wondering if I was in the right test and if so, I had no business taking it! I don’t know if the questions were in random order and that was just the luck of my drawl, or if the intent was to see how the applicant does under pressure, but I tried not to let it rattle me. I told how managing projects goes, something goes awry, you power on and try to get it back on track. Throughout the exam there were clumps of hard questions (to me) interspersed with easier ones and a few that I had no clue on. Most of the questions I could quickly eliminate two answers right away and then focus on the other two.

I saw some lessons learned where people said they had many lengthy questions. That wasn’t true in my case. Most questions were one or two sentences and like others have said, you had to determine what to do next or what was the best action based on the scenario given. From what I recall there were a dozen or so calculations and all were fairly straight forward. Difficulty and style wise I thought the test questions were a mix of the exam simulator questions and Rita’s questions.

Going in I had a strategy where I was going to take a break after I answered the first 100 questions, but I didn’t do that. I felt like I didn’t really hit my stride until about 50 questions in. At the 100 question mark I felt good and didn’t feel like I needed a break so I actually finished all 200 questions and was done with that right about the 3 hour mark. At that point I did take a quick break to use the restroom and drink some water. By the time I did that and went through the check in process again I had about 50 minutes left to review my answers. I had chosen an answer for every question the first time through and then marked those that I was unsure of. I first went through the marked questions and changed 1 or 2 out of about 30 I had marked. I still had about a half hour left so I went back to question 1 and started quickly reviewing. I was on question 55 or so when I ran out of time and only changed 1 answer in that pass. The test ended and my heart was pounding. The computer was computing my score and then the darn survey popped up! I filled that out and the computer thought a little more and then I saw “Congratulations” on the screen and was so relieved and happy!!!! I quickly collected my supplies and got out of there before the computer changed its mind! 

One suggestion I have is know your test taking style and what distracts you and practice in that same environment if you can. My test center provided each person with noise cancelling headphones, but I couldn’t use them. It was too quiet with them on and I could hear every breath I took (think Darth Vader) and that was more distracting to me then the noises in the room. There were probably 20 or so other people in the testing room with me so there was some coughing, clicking computer keys and the woman next to me kept sighing loudly. Luckily most of my practice tests were taken with my child or pets distracting me, or the TV on in another room, etc. so blocking out the distractions was easier.

If you are still reading my novel, thank you! Best of luck to all the PMP aspirants out there. You can do this if you use the materials and put in the work. It was by no means easy, but it is so rewarding! I’m glad I took my time and really LEARNED the material. I know I am a better project manager because of it. Now on to start earning PDUs. After I order new business cards with PMP behind my name!

Dear Mandy Geier,

Congratulations on passing your PMP exam!

Thanks for sharing your very detailed lessons learned.

Enjoy your brand new PMP credentials and the three letters next to your name. Don’t forget to celebrate your success which is an important part of this “project’s” closure. Well done for your thoughts to start earning PDU’s.

Good luck in all your future endeavors.